ARMING THE ARSONISTS:
PERES, HAMAS AND THE P.L.O.

By Louis Rene Beres

In his timely work, The Firebugs, Swiss playwright Max Frisch tells the
distressing story of Gottlieb Biedermann, a cautious businessman who
contends with an epidemic of arson by implementing a deadly series of
self-deceptions. Ultimately, Biedermann invites the arsonists into his home,
lodges them, feeds them a sumptuous dinner, and even provides them
withmatches. Not surprisingly, the play ends, for Biedermann, on an
incendiary note. It also ends, predictably, with a pathetic and revolting
disclaimer from an academic "expert" who has counseled appeasement all
along.

There is an enormously important lesson here for present-day Israel. Faced
with an epidemic of "arson" from militant Islamic terrorists, Jerusalem has
responded exactly like the playwright's weak and foolish character. Asking
the terrorists into Israel's very "home," because it believes that entreaty and
capitulation are preferable to courage and struggle, the Government of Israel,
too, is prepared even to help light the fuse. Pretending that Hamas and
P.L.O. are truly distinct and discrete - a delusionary pretense that fits
comfortably with the simple polarities favored by so many Israeli experts,
professors and pundits - Messr. Peres now looks to his "Palestinian partners"
for Israel's security and survival. It should come as a surprise to no one,
therefore, that arson has become a growing problem for Israel.

To a significant extent, the terrible harm that has been done by Peres is done
and cannot be undone. Indeed, by creating the conditions whereby each
successive act of anti-Israel terrorism now compels the Government to
reaffirm its commitment to the Peace Process, Peres has created a lose-lose
scenario. Should he begin to back off from such explicit reaffirmations, all
those who have set out to destroy the Process will have succeeded. Should
they maintain such reaffirmations, the steady "progress" of the Process will
ensure only escalating levels of terror, of fatal or near-fatal forms of "arson."

What, then, should be done? It is time to be frank! This Peace Process was
destined to fail. Founded upon a series of false assumptions and
incomprehensibly unreasonable expectations, it is leading Israel toward
unprecedented disaster. Taken together with ongoing and still planned
surrenders of vital territories to enemy states (yes, "enemy" states, regardless
of linguistically formal "peace agreements" signed with Israel), further
concessions to Hamas/P.L.O. will threaten the Third Temple itself.

If I am correct, and the well-publicized distinctions between Hamas and P.L.O.
are essentially false - a deliberate contrivance of both groups designed to
weaken Israel from within - then Jerusalem's "Palestinian partners" (the
obscene term used by the Government Spokesman only minutes after the
Tel-Aviv bus bombing) are already at the fuse. As long as the Peace Process
is sustained, the P.L.O. will make it impossible for Israel to do what is needed
to survive. If, on the other hand, I am wrong, and Hamas is truly separate in
every way from P.L.O., the dangers of the Process may be just as serious.
This is because, if I am wrong, a Palestinian state created by P.L.O. would
inevitably be taken over and directed by Hamas or its Islamic equivalents.
There is no way, in the current Middle East, that a secular Palestinian
authority could endure. Either way, therefore, Israel loses.

Most likely, Hamas/P.L.O. offers Israel a "good cop/bad cop" routine. Cast as
the good cop, Arafat and his P.L.O. promise to protect Israel if only the Jewish
State offers them its confidences. With such an offering, Peres is instructed,
the far more menacing Hamas can be kept safely at bay. It is an offer that
Israel, imprisoned by the Peace Process, now can't refuse. Only later, when
perhaps it is already too late to turn back,
Peres will discover that the two cops were working together, that he has been
"had."

None of this is meant to suggest that the two "cops" necessarily know that
they are cooperating against their prisoner. There is nothing necessarily
conspiratorial in their cooperation. For those who have already concluded that
I am incorrect in this metaphor, kindly consider this: Hamas/P.L.O.
cooperation can be just as injurious to Israel's survivalwhere it is tacit and
unintentional as where it is explicit and deliberate. Even if Hamas and P.L.O.
have very different agendas, and even if each terror group views the other as
an authentic competitor, they may well recognize, openly or inadvertently, the
overriding benefits of cooperation.

At the end of The Firebugs, in the closing moments of the play, as the sky
reddens from fire, the all-too-familiar "professor," the expert, exclaims:

"I can no longer be silent. Cognizant of the events now transpiring, whose
evil nature must be readily apparent, the undersigned submits to the
authorities the subsequent statement../..../..(Amid the shrieking of sirens, he
reads an involved statement, of which no one understands a word. Dogs
howl. Bells ring. There is the scream of departing sirens and the crackling of
flames. The Professor hands Biedermann a paper.) I disassociate myself!"

There is a very important lesson here for Israel. The Jewish State must
cease immediately to arm the arsonists. The citizens of Israel should read
immediately The Firebugs. This play should be required reading for all these
citizens, and very, very soon!

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LOUIS RENE BERES (Ph.D., Princeton, 1971) is a Professor Department of
Political Science, Purdue University happens to be a professor, but is
assuredly not an "expert." He was also born in Switzerland, in Zurich,
hometown of the playwright Max Frisch.